Anti-Israel protesters demonstrate in front of the Central Bank of Ireland against the sale of Israeli bonds throughout the EU, in Dublin, Ireland, May 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

A film crew from i24News’ Hebrew channel was assaulted over the weekend in Northern Ireland while filming a documentary series about antisemitism in Europe.

Reporter Yonatan Raveh and cameraman Nadav Abbas were interviewing people on the street in a popular bar area in Belfast when a local man realized they were from Israel and confronted the crew, according to i24News, which also shared a video of the incident on X.

The Irish man confronted the Israeli television crew and tried to grab their expensive camera equipment. When he failed, “he began actively disrupting the recording process and made obscene gestures toward the camera, which led to the filming being stopped,” i24 said. “The Israeli team tried to calm the situation and withdraw from the scene, but the suspect continued to follow them in a threatening manner, at which point the i24NEWS team turned to nearby security personnel and asked for help calling the police.”

The attacker then took the large glass beer mug he was holding and threw it at Abbas, which resulted in a cut on his head.

The i24NEWS team attacked in Northern Ireland while filming a series of reports on antisemitism. A man who realized that the crew was from Israel confronted them and threw a beer glass; the photographer was hit in the head.

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— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) August 16, 2026

Abbas did not need further medical treatment, and the Israeli television crew left the scene safely after the ordeal. They have since returned to Israel, according to i24News. The filming in Northern Ireland was for the third part of an i24 documentary series that Raveh has been working on for several months that highlights rising antisemitism around the world.

According to a report released by the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland (JRCI), which is the main body representing the Irish Jewish community, 143 reported antisemitic incidents took place in Ireland between July 2025 and January 2026. The report emphasized that the incident count should be understood in the context of the low population — only 2,200 Jews in Ireland.

Meanwhile, relations between Ireland and Israel have become increasingly strained since the Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Since the attack, the Irish government has been among the world’s fiercest critics of Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip during its war with Hamas. The Algemeiner reported earlier this month that Ireland ordered a €53 million government jet and insisted that it does not have its standard advanced combined-vision system called FalconEye, because it was developed with Israeli defense company Elbit Systems.

In July, Ireland’s parliament approved legislation banning the imports of goods from parts of East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Ireland was also among the five countries that boycotted the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria, in protest of Israel’s participation in the competition.

Ireland recognized a Palestinian state in 2024 and soon afterward, Israel closed its Dublin embassy. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar blamed the move on Ireland’s “extreme anti-Israel policies” and denounced former Irish President Michael D. Higgins as an “antisemitic liar.” Higgins’ successor, Catherine Connolly, has called Israel a “terrorist state.”